Did you know 10 states permanently deny felons the right to vote after serving prison time? Only two states allow felons to vote from prison? In 23 states, voters’ rights may be restored after a court hearing and based solely on the decision of the judge who can ask questions like, “Do you go to church?”

Wendy Geiger, chair of sociology, gerontology and cross-disciplinary studies, hosted an event Sept. 20 in the UCM Elliott Student Union to discuss issues relating to voting rights and voter suppression. The event was held in conjunction with the American Democracy project in support of Constitution Week.

This year, Geiger held this event with students in her communication in social movements class. They were involved in researching topics, which included voting rights for women, felons, poor people, minorities and illegal immigrants.

“When I was given the opportunity to be a part of this, I really like students to have the experience where they can maybe kind of take the information we’re learning in class but make it more applicable to real-life situations,” she said. “So last fall when we were planning, I knew that I would be teaching communication and social movements, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for students to be able to do a little bit of research and present it… to provide a sense of, gosh, maybe voting isn’t as easy as I thought it was.”

The presentation consisted of four groups presenting information on each topic. Geiger began by introducing the series and speaking about felons’ rights to vote.

“The United States stands alone among modern democracies in stripping voting rights from millions of citizens on the basis of criminal convictions,” Geiger said, reading from “Racism and Felony Disenfranchisement: An Intertwined History,” a study by Erin Kelley for the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Following Geiger’s presentation, Stuart Duncan, senior communication major, spoke about more laws that restrict the rights of formerly incarcerated felons.

“Most states enforce disenfranchisement due to felonies,” Duncan said.

Following the presentations, Geiger spoke about the research that changed her perspective of voters’ rights.

“I didn’t know some of these things and then even if you are in a state where you do get to get reinstated to vote… most states don’t have an even playing field,” she said. “It just depends on the judge you get, and if the judge goes, ‘Nope, I don’t think you should vote,’ you don’t get to vote. What seems to be part of the justice system should have some justice elements to it, and to me, it’s really bad that after they serve their sentence, they’re not able to vote.”